Abstract:

Objective   To explore the morbidity of hypertensive retinopathy (HR)in the residents of Ningyang county in the Shandong province and to analyze its related risk factors． Methods   Some residents over 35 years old in the Ningyang county were selected by a cluster random sampling method and investigated with questionnaire surveys, physical  examination  and venous blood tests. Results   1086(81.78%) hypertension patients completed all of the questionnaire, physical examination and laboratory detection. There were 313 patients with normal retinal and 783 with hypertensive retinopathy in varying degrees, including 532 cases of gradeⅠ(68.82%),159 cases of grade Ⅱ(20.57%), 79 cases of grade Ⅲ (10.22%) and none of grade Ⅳ， and  only  53 cases occurred ocular complications (6.86%). The morbidity of HR in Ningyang county was 71.18%. 859 patients knew that they were suffering from high blood pressure diseases (79.1%) and 342 had been treated with drug therapy (31.5%). The morbidity of HR in the rural residents was 73.68%, which was clearly higher than that in county residents (64.82%). With the increase of patient’s age, blood pressure value and the course of the  disease, the morbidity of HR was increased, but there was no significant correlation with the gender of the patients. By ordinal logistic regression analysis, age, rural area, and the course of hypertension were risk factors of HR. The severity of HR in patients with mix-type hypertension(sbp≥140 and dbp≥90) was 2.44 times than that of the normal blood pressure group. The severity of HR with the group over 10-years hypertension course was 4.15 times than that of the group of the course ＜1 year. Conclusion   The morbidity of hypertensive retinopathy in Ningyang county is relatively high. The risk factors include blood pressure, age, residential area，and the course of hypertension. And it is characterized with low awareness rate , low treatment rate and low control rate. Ophthalmologists need close cooperation with medical institutions at all levels to establish  the  prevention and control system of HR.

Key words: Hypertensive retinopathy；  Morbidity； Risk factors； Epidemiology